Final Details

Dear Colleagues,

We look forward to meeting you all tomorrow. We wanted to send you some final information as you prepare for your trip. Please refer to our webpage, http://religionconference.syr.edu, for an up-to-date schedule, as well as how to connect to Wi-Fi on campus. Most of our events will take place in the Hall of Languages (see picture below), with the exception of the dinner and reception, which will take place at the Goldstein Alumni Center. You may find a campus map here.

Thank you to those of you who sent us your flight information. For those of you who have yet to arrange travel options from the airport, or Walsh bus and train terminal, we would recommend any of the cabs waiting in queue at either location. You may also use the CENTRO bus system to travel from Walsh to the hotel. The Crowne Plaza Hotel also offers a free shuttle between the airport and hotel. If you’re staying at the hotel I would encourage you to contact them at 315-479-7000 to make inquiries.

We strongly encourage you to be mindful of the weather conditions in Syracuse. You should note that our sidewalks are almost completely covered with three feet of snow, making the walk to campus a bit sloshy/messy. I suggest a good pair of boots, or water-proof shoes, for the walk to campus, and to change shoes once you arrive. You’ll also want to dress for extremely cold weather. Friday’s high is 14 degrees fahrenheit, with a low of -4. The walk from the Crowne Plaza to the Hall of Languages is 0.9 miles, and I promise you won’t regret bringing extra layers!

For those of you who plan to drive to the conference, on Friday you may park for free in the Harrison lot, and on Saturday you may park in the Waverly lot (see map). You will need to tell the parking attendant that you’re attending a conference with the SU Department of Religion. There are also other paid garages in the area, if you’d prefer.

Sadly, there are no gender neutral bathrooms in the Hall of Languages, but we’ve decided to claim one of the women’s bathrooms on either the second or third floor as gender neutral. We’ll be placing a sign on the bathroom door early on Friday and again on Saturday, explaining that the bathroom will be gender neutral for the length of our conference. We wanted to make you aware of this action, and to apologize that our facilities couldn’t be more accommodating. Also, we’ve asked for all of the conference chairs to double-check with presenters regarding proper names, pronunciations, and pronouns. Please feel encouraged to approach the chair on this matter in advance, and know that we’ve taken precautions to ensure that our conference is a safer space, especially for our trans* attendees.

We look forward to seeing you all soon. We will check our gmail constantly between now and the conference, so please don’t hesitate to contact us with any last minute questions.

To help with your navigation, this is an image of the Hall of Languages. You’ll see it the moment you turn on to University Avenue.